Lead bullets Matter
There are three kinds of men: The ones that learn by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence and find out for themselves. - Will Rodgers
Today, I gave powder coating a try. I bought a dedicated convection oven (Oster), a pancake compressor and the Harbor Freight powder coat gun. I didn't try them on boolits (wanted to see if I could do it 1st) so I powder coated a horseshoe. It took quite a lot of prep work on that rusty horseshoe but it turned out nice and well covered (red), next stop, boolits. Thanks to everyone who contributed their knowledge in this thread, it sure helped me in accomplishing this feat.
looking good there 62chevy .. You are getting the hang of it now
[SIZE=4][B]Selling Hi Quality Powdercoating Powder
I carry a Nuke50 because cleaning up the mess is Silly !!
http://www.bing.com/search?q=nuke50&...7ADE&FORM=QBLH
I am not crazy my mom had me tested
Theres a fine line between genius and crazy .. I'm that line
and depending on the day I might just step over that line !!!
I just wonder if powder coated bullets wear the barrel more? I still like having a lube. I guess I'm still old school,lol.
Last edited by josper; 04-11-2015 at 10:47 AM.
Once more into the fray. Into the last good fight I'll ever know. Live or die on this day. Live or die on this day.
Not that anyone can tell. This has been tested many times. Here is the latest discussion thread on it.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...asivenss-of-PC
KE4GWE - - - - - - Colt 1860, it just feels right.
Lead bullets Matter
There are three kinds of men: The ones that learn by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence and find out for themselves. - Will Rodgers
[SIZE=4][B]Selling Hi Quality Powdercoating Powder
I carry a Nuke50 because cleaning up the mess is Silly !!
http://www.bing.com/search?q=nuke50&...7ADE&FORM=QBLH
I am not crazy my mom had me tested
Theres a fine line between genius and crazy .. I'm that line
and depending on the day I might just step over that line !!!
Am I getting old?
Did I read on here that any kind of flat black won't BBDT?
Nobody to my knowledge has been successful (one coat is my success rate for ANY powder) with matte powder. The matte agent kills the static.
If you want matte (my favorite ...Ninja Matte Black!) you have to use ESPC.
And..............YES................you ARE getting old, just like the rest of us!!!!!
banger-j
I don't no, after I passed 65, I started counting down.
New to the forum and hope I am posting this question properly. Got a late start w/ reloading and at 71 decided not to cast my own bullets. I buy cast bullets to use in my S&W 29 and just got a new Marlin 1894. I removed the lube from the cast bullets I bought and tried to powder coat with the tumble method. Everything looked great - new oven and wire cloth tray. Preheated oven to 400F and put in about 75 of them for 20 minutes. Big mess - bullets melted partially of completely - I salvaged 3! Maybe thermostat bad - any other thoughts? Nothing like on the videos! Thanks.
Oven thermostats are not usually reliable. Buy a cheap baking thermometer and double check it.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...their-accuracy
KE4GWE - - - - - - Colt 1860, it just feels right.
Lead bullets Matter
There are three kinds of men: The ones that learn by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence and find out for themselves. - Will Rodgers
Convection ovens will usually not melt boolits because they do not have hot spots due to the air movement. But as said get a good oven thermometer. Your oven dial is probably waaaaaaay off, as most of them always are.
It is very easy to shake & bake boolits. You just need to verify your temps.
Also be sure ALL, I mean virtually ALL, the lube is off those comcast boolits. I use a laq thinner soak overnight. Then swirl in clean laq thinner. Then rinse in VERY HOT water and Simple Green and then rinse in VERY HOT water and dry. They always coat perfectly. There are other methods suggested on here but this method works everytime flawlessly for me.
Welcome to the fun!
bangerjim
Been there, done that. I had a toaster oven where the dial said 400 the oven produced 550! I learned that the hard way, demonstrated by the following pic:
That was remedied by an oven themometer and discovering that a dial reading of 325 was what I needed to produce 400 degrees.
So whatever else you do, don't think you're the Lone Ranger here.
Good luck, you're about 90 percent of the way there.
BTW, here's the thread where I discuss my temperature lesson and there are other gems in there, a few from me, most from others: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...d-some-success
Turned thermostat down to 175 and bullets still melted so returned to store. Got another one and oven thermometer. This one is off about 25 deg. Bullets look a lot better now. Thanks for all the help.
Last edited by fredj338; 11-07-2015 at 05:23 AM.
EVERY GOOD SHOOTER NEEDS TO BE A HANDLOADER.
NRA Cert. Inst. Met. Reloading & Basic Pistol
After seeing another poster mention they did not stand up boolits when baking, and experienced no loss of accuracy or any additional cleaning required, even though they were not as pretty or perfectly covered, gave it a try. I HIGHLY suggest giving that method a try if you wish to do a ton of boolits in a very short time. Yes, if you look close enough, they do have some occasional bare spots where the boolit contacted the wire basket or mesh tray, or from contact with other boolits. But results are still what we want, same or better accuracy than traditional lube, with no leading or mess to clean up. I bake around 500 at a time, piled up in fry basket, then toaster over. Does take a bit longer for temperature to get back up to 400 and gloss over, but not like you have to do anything extra but wait. It works, even in hot and humid Florida! This with Smokes fine powder, so results might be different using HF powder.
The other tip I read that really helped was pre-heating the boolits to around 100 degrees before coating, which seems to make the powder stick much easier and more thoroughly, even when not using ASBB's.
Last edited by RobsTV; 06-17-2015 at 06:57 AM.
Hi all!
My attempt at wet coating:
Got some sample powder from local shop. Eventually came to mixing ratio of 20 grams to 100ml of acetone. Coats well but still needs two coats for complete coverage. Needs to be dumped on a drying screen while wet or it will get lumpy. Discovered that if you place lumpy boolits back in the coating bucket and add some acetone and remix it it will smooth out completely.
15 min each time at 400 degrees in pid convection oven. Passed smash test. Will shoot 'em this week and report with outcome.
'Good lookin boolits! Wet coating works, and it works well. I usually did 2 coats because the first one usually wasn't too pretty (and sometimes the second one still wasn't), however it is very easy and shoots great.
KE4GWE - - - - - - Colt 1860, it just feels right.
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |